I haven’t made meatloaf in many years; chiefly because my wife, who likes burgers and meatballs, HATES meatloaf. However, since I have been living an enforced bachelor life of late, I decided to try one again. I have purposely made this recipe fairly simple. Many people add all sorts of other ingredients like carrot, celery, or onion into the meat mix but I find the texture suffers and I prefer to serve these sorts of things separately…

The ingredients

1lb Regular Ground Beef;

1lb Extra Lean Ground Beef;

1 cup Breadcrumbs;

2 Eggs, beaten;

1 Scallion, very finely minced;

1 tbsp. Sugar;

2 tbsp. Garlic Salt;

2 tbsp. Pepper;

2 tbsp. rubbed Sage;

1 tbsp. Parsley Flakes;

1 tsp. Celery Seed;

3 – 4 tbsp. Tomato Ketchup.

First, mix together all the ingredients except the ketchup and work well to form a sticky, mostly homogenous mass. I have used a 50-50 blend of fatty and lean beef that I find works well for burgers. You can vary the ratio as you like.

Next, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and put the meat mixture in a suitable baking pan. Here, I have folded a sheet of foil and placed it under the loaf. You don’t have to do this but it makes for a useful ‘handle’ when removing the loaf from the pan later.

Bake your loaf for about one hour. Halfway through the cooking time, brush the top with ketchup. This will add a little flavor and make a nice attractive glaze for service.

I really wanted to serve my first slices with mashed potatoes but our food flights have been erratic due to bad weather of late and there wasn’t a potato to be had. Instead, I used some commercial potato patties and served them with the meat and some flash-fried bok-choy. The presentation above was just for picture purposes… I actually ate two patties with three slices of the loaf.

BTW… this was a big loaf for just one. Since the first meal, I have used slices on sandwiches with horseradish, and last night I pan-fried a couple of slices and served them smothered in slow-cooked onions J